Love Thy Neighbour

[Saul Nielsen]

On a sunny Saturday afternoon in Los Santos...

Saul's first impressions of Banyon Street were based upon the sign that stood at the street's sole serving bus stop. The metal was misshapen. A white sticker bearing a looping scribble – a graffiti tag – obscured the lower half of the letter P whilst the tail of the letter S had been punctuated by a gunshot. As he turned to look down the length of the street – with its over-grown gardens and uneven side-walks – a siren wailed in the distance.

A lowrider rolled by with its wheel-trims gleaming in the midday sun and obnoxiously loud hip-hop (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6tqn7uhYKk) blaring out of the windows. The driver and passenger looked at Saul – clean-cut in his cotton slacks and button down shirt, a leather messenger bag slung over one shoulder and a stack of pamphlets under the other arm – and sneered. Saul simply smiled.

It was roughly twenty-five minutes later, after having been alternately ignored and berated for his efforts to engage in conversation with the locals on their doorsteps on a weekend, that he lifted a fist to knock on the door to the infamous Redencion House. He took a step backwards on the porch, looking up at the exterior of the house with a thin smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

[Anna Fernandez]

"Don't stop vacuuming!" Anna called upstairs, and after a moment the Dyson that had been recently donated to the House started again. She wiped her hands on her half apron and opened the front door, her hair braided in two plaits and a bandana on her head to keep the wispy fly-aways out of her eyes.

"Alex you - oh," she faltered, focusing on the visitor through the screen door. "I am sorry, I thought you were someone else. How can I help you?"

[Saul Nielsen]

“Anna Fernandez?” he asked, smiling through the screen door. It was a question that he already knew the answer to and so, after a polite pause, he went on.

“My name is Saul Nielsen. Could I trouble you for a few minutes of your time this afternoon?”

[Anna Fernandez]

This is kind of a bad time, I'm sorry. No solicitors, read the sign! But Anna merely nodded, and said, "I suppose...?"

She didn't make a move to open the screen door or invite him inside, and had an expression of polite indifference on her face.

[Saul Nielsen]

His smile didn't waver.

“You run a sanctuary here, for young mutants,” he began, undeterred by the lack of hospitality; it was to be expected in a neighbour like this. Saul gestured to himself.

“I run a.. community prayer group for youths in the local area, in particular youths who have developed mutations or who have family members with mutations. Aside from their mutations, what they all have in common.. sadly... is their confusion, their sense of otherness. They don't want to leave their families, their friends – but having a place to go where they can feel a sense of shared identity is very important to them, and to me.”

Pausing, his eyes fell for a moment as he exhaled a slow sigh.

“Reading about your house, it struck me that we seem to be.. following the same path, the two of us, so I wanted to take the chance to introduce myself and hopefully see if there is anything we can do to help each-another.”

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna smiled, reaching out and popping the screen door open. "Certainly, please, come inside Mr. Nielsen. I apologize about the house, we are in the middle of cleaning," and she allowed him inside and gestured to the living room.

"Please, make yourself comfortable." Anna waited for him to sit before moving to take a seat herself. "What church are you with?" she asked. "I attend St. Francis, just off Rhododendron."

[Saul Nielsen]

Saul passed an admiring eye over the living room, appreciative of the fact that it all looked well lived in, and loved. Down the hallway ahead was a table to seat six, with a bay-window view of a garden where boys whom he could only assume where occupants of the house were taking a break from tending to a vegetable garden.

“You have a beautiful home, Anna - do you mind if I call you Anna?”

Saul sat down on the family room's three-seater couch and placed his satchel at his feet, not wanting to disturb the arrangement of magazines and paperwork on the coffee table.

“I've heard good things about St. Francis,” he said with a nod, folding his hands neatly in his lap.

“Our group gets together in the old Lafayette community center. We share the space with a local senior citizens group and the Los Angeles police department.. they operate a walk-in center there two Tuesday's every month. It's not an ideal location - every time I think we've gotten the grafitti scrubbed off, something new appears - but some of the kids who come along feel more comfortable at the center than they do in the churches they attend with their families.”

[Anna Fernandez]

"I know where that is," Anna said, taking a seat in an armchair and folding her hands in her lap. The talk of graffiti made her remember that she needed to send someone to the hardware store for brown paint. The back fence facing the alley was covered with tags and needed repainting.

"It is hard to reach out to kids these days," she added. "What is it you do during your meetings?"

[Saul Nielsen]

Saul drew in a deep breath, trying to pin down in words what the group's purpose was – what his own purpose was. He exhaled, both eyebrows arching upwards.

“My.. hope is that we provide a safe place to discuss, without fear of prejudice, the changes that these kids are going through. Let them see that they don't have to go through these challenging times alone. It can be difficult getting them to open up but they're teenagers, so I suppose that's to be expected. I'm sure I must have been the same at their age.”

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna nodded as Saul spoke, agreeing with him. "Yes, teenagers are difficult nuts to crack." She smiled, "And of course they think they know everything, which makes it that much harder."

She settled a little in her chair, adding, "I'm not sure how I can help you, however..?"

[Saul Nielsen]

“Well... first and foremost, I wanted to extend a warm welcome to anyone in your household who might want to visit the community center.” He parted his hands, palms upturned. “I think the kids who are already part of the group could really benefit from meeting others their age who are living in an environment where their mutations are used openly and accepted.”

[Anna Fernandez]

"I can certainly let the kids know about your center," Anna said. "It would be up to them if they wanted to check it out."

She smiled, "Most of the residents here are not very interested in church activities." Jim came to mind - he'd probably want to go just to find the flaws in their theology. "But I think it could be mutually beneficial. Learning to help others go through what you've gone through already... Yes, I think it would be good for them."

[Saul Nielsen]

“That's all I ask: that you let them know where we are and that our doors are always open. You're welcome to come along yourself, Anna,” he added with a small smile. “Goodness knows the community centre could use a woman's touch to brighten the place up.”

[Aimee Connors]

Aimee came running down the stairs. "Hey Anna, where is there more Lysol? I ran out and the bathroom's only -" she stopped abruptly as she noticed the visitor.

"Um, I guess I'll find it, sorry. Laundry room, probably, right?"